An unidentified patient in the U.S. has died from the pneumonic plague, a.k.a. The Plague, a.a.k.a The Black Death, and no, that's not a racist epithet no matter what the BBC thinks.
Pneumonic plague is the disease that wiped out half of Europe in the 14th century.
According to the CDC,
Pneumonic plague develops when bacteria spread to the lungs of a patient with untreated bubonic or septicemic plague, or when a person inhales infectious droplets coughed out by another person or animal with pneumonic plague. Pneumonic plague is the most serious form of the disease and is the only form of plague that can be spread from person to person. The incubation period of pneumonic plague following inhalation can be as short as +1 day.
And 24 hours was about how long this poor soul in Arizona had the plague.
Most details about the patient are being withheld to protect the family, but the patient is believed to have come into contact with a dead animal carrying bubonic plague somewhere in Coconino County.
Northern Arizona Healthcare noted that ‘appropriate initial management' and ‘attempts to provide life-saving resuscitation' was performed, but ‘the patient did not recover.'
This patient is the first death from pneumonic plague in the U.S. since 2007.
An average of seven cases of plague are reported each year, but most are not fatal since plague can be easily treated with antibiotics. Even pneumonic plague doesn't have to be fatal if treated quickly — real quickly.
The Arizona infection occurred on private land, and the Coconino County Health and Human Services Department is working with the owners to treat prairie-dog burrows in the area for fleas to stop the spread of the disease.
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